Lost In The Woods
by Measured
Summary: Here all that was left of her, and she was trying to believe in fairy tales. Hadn't life taught her that there was nothing worth believing in? Kyoko/Sayaka one-sided.


Title: Lost In The Woods  
Series: Puella Magi Magica Madoka  
Character/pairing: Kyoko Sayaka  
Rating: PG-13  
Author's note: Inspired by a prompt from bloodyvalentine, but it was too late to post and not hard enough for the prompt. Spoilers.

Thanks to SirValkyrie for the beta.

**.**

The light of her Soul Gem was the only thing that illuminated the room. Cars passed outside, an annoying buzzing sound. All she heard was the lack. No heartbeat, no breath. Sayaka laid back, a rag doll, an empty husk.

She'd seen a lot of bodies, but this one didn't have a mark on it. No blood or ash turning her body into a grotesque mockery of what it once was. She looked so peaceful, as if she could wake at any moment. Maybe that was the reason why she couldn't let go.

Stupid, wasn't it? She'd managed to detach herself from all these people, and then one annoying girl had to challenge her, make her remember about those heroes and everything she's been  
running from.

Kyuubey was gone, and her stomach felt uneasy. She'd eaten too much, desperate for that one comfort life still offered her. People would betray, people would leave or die, but when she was eating, the memory of being hungry was pushed down a little more. It was the one thing in life that she'd found without a catch, a pleasure without some hidden thorn.

Kyoko looked down, and traced her finger along the covers. Her Soul Gem was a flame, flickering in a hopeless night. Kyoko wanted to believe, craved it like a hunger inside of her gnawing away at all the barriers. She could lie all she wanted, but deep down, she had the blood of a hero in her. Even when she'd put on the careless mask of a villain, telling Sayaka how she didn't care, somewhere deep inside her, this seed lived on.

When her father was alive, before the flames, he would tell them stories of heroes and fairies and princesses. A true love's kiss to awaken a sleeping beauty. It was only when she got older that she realized that her father edited those stories, kept out the original, bloody versions. How like him, to make the best of an ugly world. It was his downfall in the end, and the beginning of hers.

Maybe, maybe, just once. Kyoko leaned down, balancing herself on the bed above Sayaka. What would that prince have thought? Would he be captivated by the princess's beauty, or would he be crass? Or maybe, just maybe, he would think that he'd do anything to save this girl he just met from dying, that a kiss was only the first step.

Sayaka's lips were faintly warm, a reflection of the heat of her own Soul Gem. Against the softness of her skin, Kyoko felt a stirring within herself. Sayaka had to feel this as well–it was too intense, a flicker of a flame that must reach wherever she had hidden.

Kyoko pulled away. Sayaka remained still. She didn't even react when Kyoko's ponytail trailed over her neck.

_You made me believe again. You lead me back to myself, so I'll be your prince, I'll find you_.

The words lingered inside her, like a wish, a prayer. She didn't remember how to say the rosary any longer. But she remembered Sayaka's name, and that in itself felt like an incantation, a reciting.

_I promise, I won't leave you alone._

If at first you didn't succeed, try again. Maybe they edited the fairy tales, left out that it took more than one kiss to make it happen. Kyoko lowered herself onto the bed, and climbed up on top of Sayaka's body. Just one more kiss, to make sure.

Sayaka's body was still soft and somewhat warm against her. It wasn't like she'd thought of kissing her before, long before this and before everything started to fall apart.

"I was gonna punch you, not kiss you," Kyoko said. "Really, I was."

Here all that was left of Sayaka, and she was trying to believe in fairy tales. Hadn't life taught her that there was nothing worth believing in?

And then Sayaka had to go and prove her wrong.

She sat astride Sayaka, her lips still tingling, even if Sayaka hadn't kissed her back. Her heartbeat had skyrocketed.

"I lied, you know. But maybe punching would've worked better. If stupid fairy tales and my Soul Gems won't work, then I'll have to find another way."

Anymore energy and her Soul Gem would start to darken. But she didn't want to leave the body long enough to go witch hunting. Didn't want to leave _Sayaka_, she mentally corrected herself. This wasn't a husk, like Kyuubey had said. It couldn't be.

Sayaka couldn't be dead. She just couldn't.

Kyoko moved her hands down over Sayaka's body. She'd bring the heat back to Sayaka manually, then. It was just like rubbing someone's hands during the winter. Her father used to do that, with a kiss and a prayer over her cold hands until she barely remembered the stiffness and cold.

She started on Sayaka's arms, and then moved to her waist, with an embarrassing heartbeat spike as she accidentally brushed against Sayaka's breasts with the back of her hand. She rubbed against Sayaka's long legs, the only thing really exposed with her uniform. There was a white noise in her head of a single repeated phrase.

_She can't be gone. She can't be—_

"There, you have to be warmer now. So...come back already," Kyoko said. She gripped Sayaka roughly by the collar. "I know you're still in there somewhere. So you can just wake up, Sayaka. Wake up. _Wake up._"

She kissed her again, rougher this time. She bit down on Sayaka's lower lip until she drew blood, until she could taste Sayaka on her tongue. If Sayaka wouldn't listen to her when she was trying to be nice, she'd just have to be rough with her again and shake her until she came back.

"Wake up...wake up..." Kyoko said. She was hyperventilating now, feeling like she could cry or punch a wall.

Sayaka still felt alive, but it was her own power, her heat reflected. She'd hoped for some sliver of Sayaka left in here, that Kyuubey had been lying and that _thing _that came out of Sayaka wasn't really a witch–what was left of Sayaka.

It wouldn't be the first time he lied...but it seemed like maybe for once, he'd gone and told the truth.

Kyoko pushed herself off of the bed, away from Sayaka and pulled out another package of food. She shoved it in her mouth, devouring the red bean cake in two bites. She'd barely even tasted it, and it offered her little calm through the stress.

She tossed the package away in disgust. Kyoko took one last glance at Sayaka. She laid there so peacefully, like she might just wake up at any minute. But she just wouldn't wake up, no matter how Kyoko tried.

"I get it. You're being stubborn. Maybe you'll listen to her."

Madoka was her close friend, she had to mean something to Sayaka. Maybe she could get through. She felt her chest tighten. "I know I don't mean as much to you as you mean to me but that doesn't mean you have to be so cold."

Not a flicker, a flutter, or even a breath.

"I'm not giving up on you," Kyoko said. "Be as stubborn as you want, but I'm going to find you one way or another."

_Because you were the one who found me._


End file.
